Removing soils and debris from soft surfaces such as upholstery or carpet in a quick, easy and convenient manner can be particularly difficult. Part of the difficulty comes from the broad range of soils, which are found on soft surfaces. Unlike hard floor surfaces such as vinyl floors, hard wood floors or ceramic tiles, which are mainly covered with “loose” soils, soft surfaces contain both “loose soils” and “soils capable of entanglement”. By “loose soils” it is meant any soil, which sits freely on top of the surface to be cleaned and which can be displaced easily. Typical loose soils include food crumbs, sugar grains, cereals, paper, gravel, sand, grass and the like. By “soils capable of entanglement” it is meant any soil, which is trapped around carpet fibers and which cannot be displaced easily. Soft surfaces, such as carpets, have fibers causing loose soils to get snagged in the fibers. Typical soils capable of entanglement include human hair, pet hair, threads and the like. While removing “loose soils” and “soils capable of entanglement” from soft surfaces is particularly challenging, it is beneficial that the system also be capable of also removing these same soils from other surfaces such as hard floors since many homes contain both soft and hard surfaces.
The literature is replete with devices, such as vacuum cleaners or carpet sweepers, which can be used to remove debris and clean soft and hard surfaces.
Vacuum cleaners can be very effective for picking up loose soils but are moderately effective for removing soils capable of entanglement particularly human or pet hair. In addition, vacuum cleaners are relatively heavy and cumbersome, and consequently, are not convenient for everyday use including use on hard floor surfaces. “Lighter” vacuum cleaners (having a weight of less than about 3 kg), which are battery operated, have been developed. Although these are more user-friendly in the sense that they are more maneuverable and easier to use especially on hard floor surfaces, they are not very effective at removing soils capable of entanglement.
Light weight sweepers have also been developed, which typically include a rotating brush, which is located in the front of the sweeper and which can be either electrically or mechanically driven. The rotating brush includes bristles, which project loose soils into a collection bin. Once the user has finished cleaning a carpet, he or she can empty the bin into a trash container. In addition, the rotating brush can remove soils capable of entanglement from a surface, even if soils are in an entangled state with fibers of soft surface. However, it has been observed that soils capable of entanglement, in particular hair, tend to wrap around the rotating brush. Over time, the rotating brush becomes saturated with these soils capable of entanglement. As a result, these soils reduce the ability of the rotating brush and its bristles to project loose soils into the collection bin. Eventually, a user needs to remove frequently and by hand the loose soils entangled in the bristles of the brush. The process of removing wrapped hair from a brush is both inconvenient and unhygienic. In order to prevent hair from getting entangled on the rotating brush, some carpet sweepers include continuous rotating blades as opposed to individual bristles. These continuous blades are relatively effective at projecting loose soils into a collection bin but they are also relatively ineffective at removing soils capable of entanglement, in particular long cylindrical soils such as hair or threads particularly if they are in an entangled state with the fibers of soft surface.
In summary a light weight sweeper which can effectively remove both “Loose” and “Soils capable of entanglement” from surfaces while being easy to use and not have negatives in hygiene (e.g., having to remove long cylindrical soils wrapped around a roller) is something that is highly desirable by consumers. It is found that a way to achieve all these benefits without negatives is to use a soil separation approach. By soil separation it is meant that design the sweeper system such that different areas of the sweeper are optimized to handle the different soils found on soft and/or textured surfaces like carpets, straw mats (e.g., tatami), fabrics, upholstery and on hard surfaces like wood floors, vinyl, ceramic and the like where both “Loose” and “Soils capable of entanglement” entangled can be found.
It is therefore one object of this invention to provide a cleaning implement and a disposable cleaning substrate for removing both loose soils and soils capable of entanglement from a soft and/or hard surfaces in a convenient and hygienic manner.
It is also one object of this invention to provide an effective, convenient, easy to use and more hygienic method of removing both loose soils and soils capable of entanglement from soft and/or hard surfaces.